Hey there, berry enthusiasts! Ever wondered when the perfect time is to plant those luscious strawberries in your garden? Fear not, because we’ve got you covered.
When is the best time to plant strawberries?
Strawberry crowns are quite resilient—you can put them out in the garden pretty early! The best option is to plant them in your garden during early spring (anywhere from late February to April depending on your region). As soon as the soil is workable, bareroot strawberry crowns can head into the ground!
When you buy your strawberry crowns (bare-rooted plants), they will appear brown and lifeless. No worries! This is just the crowns in dormancy. This dormancy allows for outdoor planting in spring as soon as the ground thaws and dries.
Cover up your new plants with the mulch of your choice to protect them while it’s still chilly out—straw is obviously the standard choice, but there are a ton of organic mulches to choose from! We really like to use pine shavings (animal bedding) from the farm supply store.
Growfully Protip
If you bought young strawberry plants already showing leaves instead of bare-root crowns, it’s best to wait to plant them outside until after the chance of a hard freeze has passed for your growing season.
Is it too late to plant strawberries?
In most regions, you can plant strawberries up until late May or early June—but just be aware that the later you plant, the less chance you have of getting strawberries that season.
For June-bearing strawberries (which are grown as periennials), we recommend pinching the blooms in the first season to promote root growth and greatly increase yield in future years. Because of this, planting later isn’t as big of an issue.
For day-neutrals and everbearer strawberries (which are typically grown as annuals), we recommend you make sure to get your plants into the strawberry bed by early June at the absolute latest to guarantee a harvest in the first year. Pinch all blooms until July to encourage root growth.
Growfully Protip
We recommend checking out our full How to Grow Strawberries guide for more information about the different types of strawberries and strawberry varieties.
Can you plant strawberries in the fall?
Fall works just as long as you give the plants enough time to establish themselves before the hard freezes of late fall and early winter set in. This varies from August to October depending on your region. Come spring, these plants will already possess sturdy roots, meaning they’ll be ready to produce a great crop of strawberries! If the plants start to flower in the fall, make sure to pinch them off to promote root growth.
